Another Nani Iro double gauze lap quilt because we love the other one so much.
As is the usual story, I bought the fabrics (from Kelani) and they sat in the cupboard for many months until we had a cold and dreary Saturday which made me switch into “get ready for Winter snuggle mode.”
When I picked up this big pile of tshirts from Lisa, I was a little nervous. So worried that I would make a mistake and stuff it up. These tshirts are extra special. I couldn’t just go out and buy some more if I did something wrong. They belonged to her dear husband, Aaron, who passed away last month.
Along with feeling nervous, I was so happy that Lisa trusted me enough to cut them up and make something special for her.
So, off I went with a bag full of tshirts and I knew straight away what I was going to do with them. You can probably tell from the shirts that Aaron had two big passions – sport and music. All of the shirts had big prints of them so I kept the quilt really simple and cut out big squares from each one, making sure that I kept the focus on the tshirts and not on the design of the quilt.
The tshirt blocks ended up being 16″ square – finished quilt 80″ square. I used a lovely brown linen for the sashing. Before sewing everything together, I ironed on a light-weight interfacing to the back of each square. It made a massive difference in the way the knit fabric behaved and made it much easier to work with.
Lisa had seen a few sneek pics of the quilt along the way and I wanted to do something a little extra to surprise her. When I’d finished piecing the top, I showed Jaron and he made the comment that the tshirt squares looked like old record album covers (which seemed very fitting as Aaron had a big collection of old records!) it made me think about musicians and signatures and I thought it would be really cool if I could get a copy of Aaron’s signature and embroider it onto the front of the quilt somewhere. Detective Simone paid a visit to the office of the school where Aaron worked and got hold of a letter he had written and signed. I enlarged it on the photocopier then drew it onto the quilt and embroidered it with chain stitch. The whole time I was nervous that it was a “dodgy” signature but luckily Lisa recognised it as soon as she saw it – phew!!
Sarah Fraser from Patchwork Plus did an awesome job with the quilting. We decided to go with a straight-line square design for the quilting as it complimented the squares in the quilt. Sarah’s work is impeccable and she got the whole thing finished in 2 days!!! This is the first time I have ever had a quilt professionally quilted and was thrilled with the results. If you’re looking for a good professional quilter – get in contact with her!
I worked on binding the quilt and embroidering the signature last week and yesterday was able to give it to Lisa…
I don’t know how she has been able to bear the last month of her life with her head held high and accepting all of the change that has taken place. She truly is an amazing woman, and has taught me so much in this short space of time.
When I picked up the tshirts from Lisa, we got each of her boys to choose their favourite shirt to be made into something special also.
Jalen choose to have his made into a cushion – I love how it turned out…perfect for an almost teenager:
Harrison and Kobe each wanted a blanket. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do this with just one tshirt and decided to buy some pre-made blankets and applique the tshirts to the front.
I like the way that the original shape of the shirts has been retained so that hopefully they can more easily picture their Dad wearing them.
I know that nothing can “fix” the hurt that these guys are feeling now. But I’m hoping that these keepsakes can help give them something to cuddle and snuggle under and remind them of all the special times they were blessed to spend with their husband and father.
Love you guys so much and I know that Aaron and Noah will always be by your side, until you meet again. xxx
A big pile of tshirts to be cut up and made into a king sized quilt.
The tshirts belong to Aaron. Lisa asked me if I could make them into a quilt that her and the boys could snuggle under and be reminded of him. I’m nervous that it won’t live up to expectations! But I’m also grateful to be trusted to transform them into something useful.
And I’m really excited about seeing it all finished up – to me, some of the tshirts look a little scary (Motley Crue?!) Aaron loved his clothes, sports and music and I love how these tshirts sum up so many of his great loves!! To Lisa, I know that each of these shirts bring with them special memories – of places they have been, things that were said, events that have happened.
Making a quilt is a big task, I’m so so so grateful to Sarah of Patchwork Plus for offering to quilt it for me on her longarm machine. This girl is an absolute gem! Quilting takes forever for me so I’m so happy to know that it won’t take months for Lisa to get it back.
I’ve got some sewing to do – see you later!
P.S. The auction went AWESOME! Did you hear that it raised over $12,000?! The donations site is still open if you wish to make a donation.
It rained all weekend, which was good for me because I desperately wanted to get started on a new quilt!
This was my weekend project.
You may recognise the fabrics as being the same as the new cushion covers I recently made for the loungeroom. The mis-matched eclectic mix of prints and colours are still making me smile, so much so that I decided a matching quilt would be fun!
I did have a think about perhaps using a more elaborate piecing design (like triangles…super elaborate on my behalf!) for the quilt, but didn’t have quite enough fabric to make the quilt a big snuggle under size so stuck with squares.
I love each of these fabrics so much that I’m happy to let the fabric shine rather than the focus be on the piecing design.
Jaron did ask me during my cutting and sewing marathon what “pattern” I was working on and when I told him I was making a quilt just for fun I could almost hear him think psycho woman to himself!!
Crafting gets a bit like that, don’t you think? Sometimes I actually do feel like a bit of a psycho, cutting up fabric and sewing it back together just for fun. And to prove it…my secret reason behind making this quilt is so that I have something to do (i.e. hand-quilting) when we sit down and watch a movie or something on TV!
So now, I’m waiting on backing fabric to arrive and then have to think about how I’m going to quilt it…Perle 8 cotton? What colour? What design? Any ideas??
I loooove double gauze fabrics…if you haven’t sewn with them before, do it. They are super soft, slightly textured and have that “look good when crushed” look about them (great for people like me who don’t like to iron!) When I saw this great project over at The Purl Bee last month, I knew that it wouldn’t be long until I had a go at sewing one myself and look what I made in just 1 1/2 hours on the weekend!
This lap quilt measures about 1m x 1.5m – not very big, but just right for popping over your lap to snuggle down and watch a movie or read a book on the couch. Also great for a quick and easy baby quilt. It is lovely and soft and after a few washes I know that the snuggle factor will increase as the quilt softens even more.
As a quick and easy quilting method, the quilt is sewn together with small bar tacks (or short zig-zags) every 7″.
I’m thinking a lap quilt for every member of the family may be in order over the next little while…this one is already in high demand!
My lovely double gauze fabrics came from Kelani fabric, and I used wool batting between each layer.
SUPPLIES: Nani IRO double gauze, Saaaa Saaa Stripe in Red Nai IRO double gauze, Pocho White on Soft Grey
